1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to responsive directional indicators. More specifically, this invention relates to a responsive directional indicator for amusement and study which produces a directional indication responsive to environmental variations.
2. Description of the Related Art
For many years, people have sought amusement or enlightenment from devices such as divining rods, dowsing rods, Ouija® Boards, or other such devices (hereinafter “divining tools”). These divining tools commonly consist of an indicator which is responsive to small variations in energy from sources such as wind, vibratory movement, frictional variations, electromagnetic fields, and other such variations (hereinafter “environmental variations”). In use, the indicator is typically held and observed by the user, whereupon directional changes in the indicator responsive to environmental variations are interpreted by the user for amusement or study. In the case of the Ouija® Board, the indicator is used to indicate numbers, letters and symbols on a board, whereupon the user then interprets the indicated numbers, letters and symbols for a meaning. In the case of divining rods, the indicator is allowed to move through an environment, whereupon the user is able to interpret responsive changes in the indicator for any of numerous conditions or criteria.
Historically, spiritual or mystical significance has been placed upon the responsive changes in the indicator of a divining tool. Various users of divining tools have interpreted responsive directional changes of the indicators as indicative of the presence of underground water, electromagnetic fields, telluric phenomenon, human illness, and other conditions. Today, although some still believe in the spiritual and mystical significance of divining tools, such divining tools are commonly utilized for recreation, exhibition, and entertainment.
Regardless of the user's belief in the mystical aspect of divining tools, such divining tools are dependent upon the ability of the indicator to translate relatively small and otherwise unobservable environmental variations into at least one observable indication. For example, in one traditional form of divining tool known as the virgula divina, a forked branch of a hazel tree responds to environmental variations, thereby causing a portion of the branch to bend or flex. However, the responsive nature of the particular virgula divina is limited by the stiffness of the wood with which it is fabricated, resulting in the need for larger and more observable environmental variations in order to produce an indication. Ultimately, if the environmental variations necessary to produce an indication in the divining tool are observable by the user absent the divining tool, the illusion that the indicator is being acted upon by a mystical force is destroyed. As such, conventional divining tools utilizing an indicator are limited by an inability to allow a more free directional change of the indicator, such that the indicator is more responsive to smaller and less observable environmental variations.